Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medium holder inserted into a stamp-face platemaking device so as to perform appropriate platemaking, the stamp-face platemaking device that accurately detects the size of the stamp face material held in the medium holder, and a medium holder manufacturing method.
Description of the Prior Art
Stamps each having sponge rubber as a stamp material that is impregnated beforehand with ink have been used to avoid trouble of applying ink to the face of a stamp every time a stamp mark is placed with the stamp.
For example, JP 10-100464 A discloses a manufacturing device that secures a stamp having a base, to which a stamp plate (a stamp face material) formed with a porous sheet is attached, onto a platemaking device, presses a thermal head against the surface of the porous sheet to move the stamp plate, selectively heats the heating element of the thermal head, and forms a stamp face on the stamp plate, the stamp face being formed with a melted and solidified portion that blocks ink and an unmelted portion through which ink passes.
However, the technique disclosed in JP 10-100464 A uses a carriage in the drive mechanism for the thermal head, and a mechanism that drives a thermal head with a carriage has a large-sized structure and does not satisfy the demand for smaller devices in the recent market.
Also, as is apparent from FIG. 4 of JP 10-100464 A, an edge head is used as the thermal head. The price of an edge head is almost three times higher than the price of a conventional head. This leads to a problem of a large increase in cost, in addition to the above described problem of an increase in device size.
Further, JP 10-100464 A discloses the sizes of the heating element in the main scanning direction and the sub scanning direction, but does not disclose the size of the stamp plate to be used in platemaking. As the stamps shown in FIGS. 1, 4, and 5 have different shapes, it is only possible to assume that there are stamp bases of various sizes, and stamp plates to be secured to stamp bases also vary in size.
Also, by the technique disclosed in JP 10-100464 A, the size of a stamp face material cannot be sensed from the platemaking device simply by printing the size of the stamp face material on the medium holder holding the stamp face material. Therefore, it is left to the user to determine whether the size of the stamp face material is correct. In a case where the user inadvertently inserts a medium holder holding a stamp face material of a different size from a desired stamp size into a platemaking device, not only does the platemaking fail, but also the stamp face material and the medium holder are discarded and wasted.